The Chained Watcher

New Wings

Grian was off to Hypixel again.

Why was he going right now? Well, this isn't just a normal field trip.

The signs had started a few days ago, when part of his back began getting itchy. For most normal people, this would just be a minor annoyance. For Grian, however, this posed a problem.

This itch wasn't the problem itself, but was rather a sign of a thing that happened to Watchers every once in a very long while. It had been so long since when he was first chained up that he almost forgot what that itch signified. With his magic no longer being drained, it slowly concentrated, thickening in the way Watcher magic naturally does. And now, it has reached the threshold.

You may be asking yourself, 'What threshold?' Well, you might not know this, but Watchers don't have a set number of wings throughout their lives. Even the most powerful Watcher once had only a single pair of wings, though that would have been an immeasurable amount of time ago. 

The threshold Grian had reached was to grow a new pair of wings. And this was causing problems.

Not only would he have to release the transformation for the entire duration, but the amount of magic he would be radiating while they were growing would have him as a literal beacon to anyone with magic senses.

Why didn't he choose an unoccupied world for this?

Because Xisuma was starting to get suspicious.

If he didn't show up on the Hypixel join logs, that would be another point of suspicion. 2b2t also wasn't a good choice, since the tangled magic of the server could possibly cause problems, and Grian would honestly rather not have heavily Watcher-magic-saturated items floating around in a den of hackers. Therefore, Hypixel.

Maybe he should head North again? He might run into those two people he had met there a while back, but having to hide from two people was quite a bit easier than an entire base's worth of players. There really wasn't much he could do other than dig down to bedrock and hope for the best.

~~~

A note for Xisuma left in the Shopping District later, and Grian was off to Hypixel. Scar would be sad he couldn't come watch, but that could wait for another time.

He barely paused to take in the sights of the hub, hurrying over to Hypixel's portal to check in. The procedures go fast, and the moment he's through, he makes a beeline for the smp area. Heading into the 'Neutral' portal again, he finds himself in the same minimalistic hole in the ground he had dug last time.

Don't forget the bed this time. No need for a repeat of what happened last time, that was for sure. Picking up the bed, Grian digs his way out of the ground to see... Another war. This one taking place right above where his bed was. Brilliant.

The two sides pause, staring at the random person who had just appeared from under the ground. He decides to use his excellent conversational skills to get himself away safely. "Hello there, don't mind me, just passing through! If you don't mind, I'll be on my way now, good bye!" Taking off, Grian narrowly dodges a total of 17 arrows, 3 tridents, and an egg on his way out of the trees surrounding the battlefield.

Several more arrows are sent in his direction, but the distance by then is too great for them to reach. Well that could have gone better. He heads North, keeping an eye behind him on the off chance someone tries to give chase.

~~~

Nothing of interest happens to him on his way to the ice-swept regions of the frozen North, though he did spot a couple more cabins in the woods than last time. It made the landscape feel really picturesque, but was a little worrying. Luckily the treeless land consisting of naught but ice and snow held little to no appeal to most of the players.

All he needed to do now was dig himself a hole down to bedrock and keep away from the only two active players this far North. The itchiness was getting quite annoying, and the thought of his new wings-to-be made him feel giddy.

He dug down to the bedrock and made himself an obsidian cube for good measure. No need to take any chances, and if someone found him down here, a little bit of warning was better than none. Time to begin.

The first step was releasing the transformation. His wings gently separated into their layers, body assuming its natural form. Unlike some other Watchers, Grian's most natural and relaxed form was more humanoid than not. Despite being of more lanky proportions than the average human, he wasn't terribly disproportionate, nor was he demonic looking. The most inhuman part was actually his wings themselves, which was rather strange for a Watcher.

Next step, introspection. Find the specific location each wing seeks to grow from. Focus on that location. It is very important for the next step to know exactly where the new wings will grow.

Now for the hard part. Gently gather as much magic as you can, and guide it all to the previously located spots. Start compressing it there. This part will hurt, badly, but the more magic compressed in this step, the larger and stronger the new wings will be.

Sweat starts dripping down Grian's face. Now he remembers this, though he almost wished he didn't. Last time he went through the process of growing new wings, he literally passed out once he finished. The wings he got from that were the envy of all the others of his tier, but if he didn't want to end up crippling his potential... Then he'd have to do it again. And his control was better than it ever was. This was gonna hurt.

The final step. Oh he was not looking forward to this. Let the magic burst out. You heard correctly. After carefully compressing as much magic as he could into two spots, Grian now needed to let it do whatever it wanted to.

Grian's breath caught as the magic, released from his will, violently surged out. He bent over, wings wrapping tightly around his body as the violent magic slowly took the shape of a large pair of purple feathered wings. Spots danced across his vision as the sensation of touch stretched out into the new wings, connecting him to them in the same way as his other wings were connected.

His last thought before he passed out was, 'I'm glad I put up obsidian'